Armenia has submitted about 10 demands to the International Court, one of them requiring that Azerbaijan refrain from punitive actions against current and former officials of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yeghishe Kirakosyan, representative of Armenia on International Legal Affairs, said in an interview with Public TV.

"A figure has been mentioned, but we already have cases of illegal deprivation of liberty. The steps taken by Armenia in this regard was our demand submitted to the International Court of Justice. When Ruben Vardanyan was detained illegally, we submitted a separate request to the European Court of Human Rights for him as well. In this regard, we are also considering submitting a claim to the European Court or with any other judicial processes regarding the scope of individual persons. Unfortunately, this is not the first time a person has been kidnapped or captured. We have captured compatriots who are still in Baku prisons. The persons who were captured all faced the same fate, that is, they were charged with different articles," said Kirakosyan.

Kirakosyan said that it is expected that the court will apply a measure that will prohibit the implementation of such unilateral punitive actions. "Because this is obviously the implementation of arbitrarily punitive function by the will of Azerbaijan, to decide who is guilty and who is not. This has already become unmanageable, it can have much deeper consequences," he said.

Asked should Armenia have objective expectations from the court, Yeghishe Kirakosyan said. "The probability of release is small, I have no similar basis that the court will make such a decision. I am not only talking about the International Court of Justice, but also about the ECHR. Unfortunately, the courts do not interfere with Azerbaijan or oblige it to release. The only option that remains is to submit a demand to guarantee the rights of these persons and curb illegal processes as much as possible."

Referring to the news that Azerbaijan’s prosecutor as put 300 Karabakh citizens on an international wanted list and asked whether these persons can be directly handed over to Azerbaijan if they leave for another country, Kirakosyan did not rule it out.

"It is not excluded that some states that will cooperate with Azerbaijan will simply take that step, that is to say, that risk exists. Citizens should definitely be careful, because nothing can be ruled out," he explained.

Kirakosyan also referred to the issue related to the rights of Armenians remaining in Artsakh, and noted that steps have been taken in this regard as well.

"The first of the claims submitted to the International Court of Justice refers to the guarantee of the rights of ethnic Armenians within the framework of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination … We demanded that they should not be discriminated against, the demand also included not restricting the free movement of people. We have also included the right of return in our demands, because here we are talking about the indigenous people, the right of return is also a very important legal concept," he said.

Kirakosyan added that Artsakh's cultural heritage is also included in the demands.